GRUID/E: CRANES. 847 



PsopJiia, of which the best known is P. crepitans, the Agami or Trumpeter; they are hirge 

 birds of Craue-like aspect, with something suggestive of Emus in their form and carriao-c. 

 A notable anatomical character consists in a number of separate supraorbital bones ; the nasals 

 are holorhinal; the cfeca are long; the trachea of the ^ is immensely elongated, forming a 

 subcutaneous convolution along the abdomen; the plumage is soft; wing quintocubital ; 

 rectrices only 10. The Agamis live in flocks in the woods, nest on the ground, and lay two 

 whole-colored eggs ; they have such small power <jf flight that they often drown in trying to 

 cross streams, and the habitat of some of the species is restricted to one or the other side of 

 certain rivers. 



Family GRUID^ : Cranes. 



As already explained, Cranes are related to Rails in essential points of structure, though 

 more resembling Herons in general aspect. All are large birds, some of immense stature ; legs 

 and neck extremely long ; wings ample, but incised along posterior border, from shortness of 

 outer secondaries ; tail short, of 12 broad feathers. The head is generally, in part, naked and 

 papillose or wattled in adult, vvith a growth of hair-like feathers, or (in Balearica) an upright 

 tuft of curiously bushy plumes, like a wisp of straw. The general plumage is compact, in 

 striking contrast to that of Herons; but the inner wing-quills, in most cases, are enlarged and 

 flowing, and the wing is aquintocubital ; in some genera feathers of the neck are elongated, 

 as in Herons; there are no powder-down patches. The sternum is enlarged, and its keel is 

 hollowed to receive a fold of the windpipe, as in Swans, and some Storks and Ibises (p. 208), 

 but truncate behind and neither notched nor fenestrate: there are occipital fenestrae, but no 

 basipterygoids, and the supraorbital fossae are margined; the palate is schizognathous, and 

 the nasals are schizorbinai. The caeca are several inches long, and the oil-gland is tufted. 

 Leg-muscles variable (formula A BXY, BXY, or X Y). Details of external form are: 

 Bill equalling or exceeding head in length, straight, rather slender but strong, compressed, 

 contracted opposite nostrils, obtusely pointed; nasal fossae short, broad, shallow; nostrils 

 near middle of bill, large, broadly open and completely pervious; tibiaj naked for a great 

 distance; tarsi scutellate in front; toes short, webbed at base; hallux very short, highly ele- 

 vated ; inner anterior claw lartic. There are about 18 species of Cranes, of nearly all parts of 

 the world ; .'} are American, and these, like most of the family, fall in the single genus Grus 

 (in a broad sense ; several species represent as many subgenera). Apart from Grux may be 

 named Bugeranus caruncidatus, the Wattled Crane of Africa; Tetrapteryx paradisea, the 

 Stanley Crane of the same continent ; Anthropoides rirgn, the Numidian Crane or Demoiselle, 

 very elegant ; and 'S species of Crowned Cranes of Africa, composing the genus Bidearicu, which 

 have a singular tuft of strawy plumes on the nape, like a pouipon to whisk-broom : BB. paco- 

 ninn, chrysopelargus, and gibbericeps. 



GIIUS. (Lat. grus, fern., a crane.) Cranes. Of maximum size and length of neck and 

 legs; colcjr white or gray in adults, rusty in the young. Head without crest; more or le.ss bare 

 of feathers in adult, carnuculate, witb hair-like bristles; forehead low. Character of bill, legs, 

 and wings typically as above said. Tail short, 12-featliered. Tarsus l)roadly scutellate in 

 front. Toes short, middle about ^ as long as tarsus; inner rather exceeding outer, with en- 

 larged claw. Inner wing quills lengthened, curved, pendent beyond primaries when the wing 

 is folded. Nest on the tri-ound ; eggs few, commonly two, spotted; young ptiiopa-dic, covered 

 with copious, persistent down, and able to run about soon after being hatched though li>ng re- 

 (piiring to be fed by the jiarents. This genus, which formerly indudetl the whole tainily, is now 

 divided into several subgenera, based on difl'erenccs in the extent and character of the nakedness 

 of the head. Our Sandhill Cranes belong to Grm in the strictest sense; the Whooping Crane 

 to Liiitnogvranus. Notable exotic Cranes are G. ^/r^.s of Europe ; G. jdjioncnsis ; G. (Leuco- 



